Could J. Dempsey Take Out Ron Lyle??

No, Dempsey couldn't. He appears powerful on film, and he was, but he was much smaller than Lyle. Lyle was too powerful and too tough to get knocked out by a small guy like Dempsey. However, I will always vouch for Jack's chin. Jack survives this one. I'm not above both being down. Lyle, and I would say pretty flexible, it could be a close to one-sided win for Lyle.

 

IMO, yes he could.

 

Yes, he would snarl and Ron would curl into the fetal position mid-ring.

 

Lyle survived the full artillery of Ernie Shavers and came back to win. He then gave foreman the best fight of his life. Not sure if Dempsey would pull this off. Is it possible ? Yes. Jack had fast hands, loads of power and could go fifteen rounds. Just not sure I’d favor him

 

Dempsey could win a decision but KO Lyle? No way.

 

Who did Dempsey really ever beat? When I was doing Dempsey threads a while back, I was able to, with the aid of a variety of good and colorful posters on here, determine that of what there is on film of Dempsey, he really did not have the glorious career he's painted to have had, at least from Jess Willard on. However, that's beside the point. The point is that there's little if no reason to believe he could beat Lyle, necessarily, cuz he never faced anyone similar to Lyle. As champion he faced Miske, not only a light heavy, but a sick one. Carpentier and Gibbons were both light heavies as well and the win over Gibbons was sloppy, an unimpressive mauling fight, and a close one at that, over a light heavy. Firpo and Brennan were by far his two best wins, but Firpo is overrated as a fighter cuz he was extremely wild and innacurate and not in good shape. When I did these threads, we narrowed Brennan down to Dempsey's purely most impressive performance as champ, and the only one. Jack Sharkey he KO'd when Sharkey wasn't paying attention, and Dempsey would probably have lost otherwise. That leaves Jess Willard, the man Dempsey won the title from. The only fighter I can think of that we could actually compare to Lyle in terms of size at all (however Willard would still tower over Lyle). Willard was a one-hit wonder though. His career is sparsely populated with ones over people you've ever heard of. He was extremely basic, and his KO of Jack Johnson is not really too complex or impressive to say the least. Lyle was far more dangerous than any of these men. He was big, strong, tough, and had the ability to box, and contrary to the myth, Lyle had good stamina.

 

Dempsey, like Jack Johnson, did much of his best work pre-title. 1918 remains one of the great years for a heavyweight. He edged out a healthy Billy Miske over ten who was no cupcake and actually closer to 200 lbs. Before that he'd iced Fred Fulton who, at the time, was viewed as the bigger threat to Willlard. And before that he'd knocked seven bells out of Bill Brennan, apparently the first to floor and stop him.

Regardless of what one thinks of the big men Dempsey leveled, he knew how to tackle them - use his speed - a huge commodity back in a time when middleweights found success up at heavyweight.

Lyle packed a wallop, and he sure was game, but he'll have far less success finding Jack's head than he did Foreman's. And there's a good chance he won't see the bombs coming his way...

 

A more pertinent question would be who did Lyle really beat?

At least Dempsey knocked over a lot of top contenders, even if it wasn't the best era.

 

I suspect that his success against Foreman and shavers was in large part based on styles.

 

I’m sure it definitely was

 

Well, I did go off on a rabbit trail. The real point should have been who that was very large did Dempsey beat? As far as I know, Willard we be the only answer.

 

Lyle, though somewhat basic in his boxing ability was a well-balanced fighter. He wasn't just a puncher. Neither was he a pure boxer. He could do a little bit of everything. That kind of makes him a universal problem for all fighters. Jimmy Young was the only fighter who had no trouble with him, but he was a spoiler and had Lyle figured out. Young was a bit of anamoly.

 

Dempsey demolished Morris, Fulton, Willard and Firpo.

Even if you don't think that they were very good for what they were, they should have managed some sort of resistance.

Clearly he did not have stylistic issues with big heavyweights.

He seems to have struggled much more against small slick boxers.

If this fight was happening tomorrow, I would unhesitatingly pick Dempsey, but then I would be very worried about Lyles power!